Linden Lab's Payouts to Residents Exceed 1.1 Billion in Total

 

An article by Venturebeat has gotten attention in recent days. In part, it's because of the amount Linden Lab has invested in Second Life over the years, 1.3 billion US dollars. But it also mentioned something the residents would find more interesting. It's paid out a total of 1.1 billion US dollars to the residents.

It would be mentioned in a letter shared with some residents by Brett Linden

The formal numbers are:  Linden Lab has officially surpassed $1.3 billion invested in building our world and $1.1 billion paid out to our incredible creators. These milestones speak volumes about the vibrant economy and thriving community that we have worked together to build over the years.

Fun fact: Creators in Second Life are 100x more likely to earn over $10K annually compared to Roblox - as highlighted in this VentureBeat article detailing how Second Life remains a shining example of a creator-first metaverse.

This achievement underscores the power of Second Life as a creator-first metaverse and the dedication of our vibrant community.

 

While Roblox does pay it's users for content created, they don't make as much in comparison. They give content creators about a 70 percent share. In contrast, Linden Lab allows Second Life's content creators a 90% share of what they make, taking in ten percent in fees. 

An article in New World Notes would get into this further. According to it's sources, of the 21,152 people that made money in Second Life in 2023, about 30% or 6,446 made over $1000 USD. 1580 would make over $10,000. 138 would make over $100,000. And 14 would make over a million dollars US. 

 

That's quite a bit of money from what some would dismiss as a "game."

 

In contrast, only 0.2%, a fifth of one percent of Roblox users make more than $1000 USD. Venturebeat compared it less than favorably to Second Life, "the business of Roblox today consists of a few winners and more losers, kind of like the triple-A game business today, where the odds of any given person’s success are pretty low."

Hamlet Au would call the businessmen and women of SL about four percent of Second Life's monthly users, about 500,000 in number. While the big moneymakers in the past were land barons such as Anshe Chung, it was his opinion that today an increasing number were in the mesh avatar and accessory business. 

On a personal commentary, there's no statistics available for those who made a little less than a thousand USD, but it's not hard to imagine someone who makes several hundred dollars a year DJing or small-time content creating or some other inworld income, and while one might not be able to make a living that way, a few extra bucks in one's pocket can make life a little more comfortable.

 

Sources: Venturebeat, New World Notes  

Bixyl Shuftan

Lower Sim Tier, Higher Linden Dollar Purchase/Sell Fees Announced, Residents Can Now Pay Tier With Linden Dollars

Linden Lab had some good news and bad news a few days ago in regards to the fees it charges, good news for sim owners, not so good for the rest of us. 

The good news, if you own a sim, your expenses are going down. The Lab announced it was dropping sim tier by $20 USD a month. 

 

In recognition of our upcoming 20th anniversary, we are ... Dropping the monthly price of Full Regions by $20 for our 20th anniversary – effective immediately, Full Regions are now $209/mo.  

As the chart shows, this is the third sim tier reduction in five years, with sims now being $81 USD less a month than they were in early 2018. 

The Lab would also announce that people could pay for a sim using Linden dollars in what's being called the "$L For Land Beta Program." (see more below).

The bad news, fees for buying and selling Lindens are going up. The Lab would say this was partially due to the expected loss of sim tier revenue, and partially due to inflation increasing their operating costs.

This latest land price reduction, increased development of Second Life features, improvements, and an unfortunate combination of world-wide economic factors including inflation, all bring additional costs to our operations. We’ve spent time considering ways to manage these costs to minimize the overall burden on our Residents. We decided to absorb many of the costs and distribute some by making a change to Linden Dollar buy and sell fees. Effective today, we are changing LindeX fees as follows:

• Increasing the buy fee to 10% with a minimum fee of $1.49 and a maximum fee of $14.99USD per transaction
• Increasing the sell fee to 5% 

This is the latest of several Linden dollar purchase fee increases since June 2017, when they went up from 40 to 60 cents per transaction. Later that year, they would be raised from 60 to 99 cents. In June 2018, they went up from 99 cents to $1.49 per transaction. In April 2021, they went from the $1.49 flat fee to a 7.5% fee that could go no lower than $1.49. 

 

The fee for selling Lindens hasn't been changed as much. They had been 1.5% several years ago, then in Nov. 2017, then went up to 2.5%, and later to 3.5%.

Of the good news that residents can now pay sim tier with Linden dollars, thus for those making Linden dollars able to avoid the cashout fees, there are a few strings attached. The Lab would describe them on a webpage (link). To begin with, it's a trial system that might get canceled after six months. Also, at least for now, only Premium Plus accounts are eligible to take part, and only one sim can be paid for this way. Skill gaming (technically legal gambling) sims are also not eligible, at this time.

Linden Lab would also post a chart of how many Linden dollars would be needed to pay for the various kinds of sim, a regular full sim costing 57,475 Linden dollars a month. To set up these kinds of payments, one has to travel to the "Land Payments" sim, go in the office, find a kiosk, and follow the instructions on the website. 

There's a thread in the official forums to the topic, which as of the writing of this article has 17 pages so far, so discussion has been active.

 

Addition: Although the price changes were supposed to take effect right away, I was contacted by someone saying her sims are still showing the old prices. 

Bixyl Shuftan

Linden Dollar Prize Payments in Linden Games Cut in Half

 

At the interview with the Linden Moles at the RFL Home and Garden last Friday, there were a few issues discussed. Among them was a question from the audience, asking why the Linden dollar cash prizes awarded for winning three games created by the Lab via the Moles, Linden Realms, Paleoquest, and New Horizons, were cut in half? She wondered if this was a sign the games were about to be shut down.

Patch Linden agreed to answer, "No they are not gong away. I'll just be transparent about this." He stated there was "some level of abuse happening, some people taking advantage of how the games operate. And despite our clear warnings in place and otherwise, they were not heeding the advice to chill out, calm down, stop abusing it. And so we're starting to escalate measures on slowing that role. So if you are using any sort of programatic ways to get around the various anti-cheat devices in the games or botting or using any kind of software automation, which is forbidden in the rules. We will not only come after you and terminate your accounts, we will also start to cut the games down.

"I'm not going to close the games. That's certainly not on the agenda. But I will devalue them to the point it doesn't make sense for people to want to game them ..."

Saffia responded, "I think that's a real shame that people have been gaming them." She then brought up someone suggested, "they should be sent to the cornfield." Patch commented, "You could do that too."

So it seems of of the perks of these three Lidnen games, the Linden dollar cash prizes, will be reduced. How it will effect how many residents play has yet to be determined.

Click Here to go to the moment in the video the question was asked. 

Bixyl Shuftan

Linden Lab Not Allowing Use of Linden Dollars in Other Virtual Worlds

About a week ago, Hypergrid Business reported that the virtual world Avination have announced that the transfer of Linden Dollars from Second Life to them "is no longer available, including payment for Avination regions" via ATMs in the virtual world.

“Following discussions with Linden Labs they have advised that any use of Linden Dollars in payment for currency of any other virtual world, or for external services which are not used in SecondLife is in violation of their terms of service,” stated Leonie Gaertner, an Avination spokesperson.

Daniel Voyager found a press release on the matter in his email:

Due to recent interaction with Linden Labs, we regret having to inform you that the transfer of Linden Dollars to Avination is no longer available, including the payment of your Avination sims via the Avination ATMs. Following discussions with Linden Labs they have advised that any use of Linden Dollars in payment for currency of ANY other virtual world, or for external services which are not used in SecondLife ™ is in violation of the TOS.

Avination Management has attempted to discuss this matter with Linden Labs by reiterating the importance of this option as well as trying to understand how this is a violation of TOS, but unfortunately these talks have since broken down.

Linden Labs’ Lawyers are adamant that these TOS clearly state that Linden Dollars cannot be transferred. This stance will not just affect us as at Avination but could also see far reaching consequences for other companies considering legal use of L$, including services like Shoutcast Stream Rentals and other services rendered outside of SecondLife. 

Unfortunately, for our loyal users and us this means an end to offering a fast and convenient way of exchanging Linden Dollars to C$. According to Linden Labs, users of SecondLife must cash out through LindeX before using the real currency to pay for services not rendered within SL.

We are sorry for the inconvenience this will cause you and please accept we have tried everything in our power to reach an amicable solution with Linden Labs.

Daniel Voyager called this "really bad news for the Avination community and this will effect them deeply."

Source: Hypergrid Business, Daniel Voyager's Blog 

World of Warcraft To Test Using Real Money to Buy Experience Buffs

With people in Second Life complaining about how Linden Lab does things, it isn't just on the Grid that people are wondering what's up with the people behind the scenes. This month, it's been revealed that the makers of World of Warcraft have been testing an option once thought of as something only smaller games would use - paying more for player buffs. This comes on the heels of other news: the number of subscribers has been getting smaller.

Read more in Extra.

News & Commentary: Second Life's Declining Sim Numbers

Last week, Daniel Voyager published some statistics from the Second Life Grid Survey. The results were disappointing, if not disturbing. The number of places across the Grid is dropping, the number over the past year having fallen over 11 percent, and residents not staying inworld as long. So why is this happening and what can be done about it? There's been a few opinions on the issue.

Read more in Extra.